Decades of Rehearsal

Wayne Allen Jones is subject to &ldquo;en-too-ziasms&rdquo; (Southside for not knowing when to stop). This volume is the third in eighteen months. Written in 1999 and 2000, these poems speak with a new voice &ndash; bolder, more forceful, more energetic, more passionate. The risks are manifold &ndash; in subject, point of view, tone, and length &ndash; the history of a steel mill and its workers, the ritual of fathers giving guns to sons, a dramatic monologue from a piece of the cross borne by Jesus, a nine-part study on types of rope, and an even longer poem about a misguided walkabout in the Arizona desert.<br /><br />Shorter poems put breathing room between the longer ones, and many speak to the theme of the first book, Stone Works &ndash; the way people make sense of the world by imposing their own meanings on what they perceive, what happens, and how they respond. <br />